


The Other Way

by thatdisastrousfangirl



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Alternate Universe - Transcendence (Gravity Falls), Constructive Criticism Welcome, Gen, Might not be as bad as the tags might suggest but I’d rather not risk giving it to small a rating, Reverse Transdimensional au, a little swearing, very slight, warnings for kidnapping and slight blood
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-24
Updated: 2019-04-17
Packaged: 2019-04-27 04:43:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 16,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14417925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatdisastrousfangirl/pseuds/thatdisastrousfangirl
Summary: After falling through a strange portal Dipper and Mabel find themselves in a new world where magic is everywhere, cults like kidnapping people, and there is this oddly familiar demon called Alcor offering to help them home.





	1. A Very, Very Bad Situation

**Author's Note:**

> I originally posted this on Tumblr but I wanted to post this here as well, this version is also better edited so yeah, hope you enjoy it

“This is bad, this is very, very bad,” Dipper said, pacing back and forth at the end of the alleyway the two twins had showed up in.

“Just relax Dipdip, I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Mabel responded, half-heartedly trying to calm him down, but knowing it really wouldn’t work.

“Mabel we’re in another dimension! How on earth am I supposed to relax!?” Mabel didn’t say anything, just sat down and watched her brother with a worried expression as he mumbled to himself. 

He was right though, Mabel thought. How were they going to get through this? That portal had just appeared out of no where sucking them right in while exploring the forest, and it had left them who knew where in the multiverse. 

When they came out here they had done a quick check of the area and saw two dryads, a centaur and her three children and multiple other magical beings walking around the busy streets with the other people, confirming Dippers theory of being in another world. 

This would have been exciting for Mabel, had there been an obvious way home. A whole world just as magical as Gravity Falls? And even more so?? It would have been incredible for both of them but it was hard to be excited when you thought you where stuck.

“So what are we going to do?” she asked, Dipper stopped his pacing and looked at her, thinking for a second.

“I don’t know.” 

Dipper went and sat down next to Mabel, looking down at the ground shaking his head.

“I-I don’t know,” he repeated. They were stuck. They both knew it. There wasn’t an awful lot they could do, especially considering they didn’t even really know what had opened the portal in the first place. 

They sat together like that thinking in silence, having no idea what to do or say, for several minutes, when Mabel’s head perked up.

“Dipper, did you hear that?” Mabel whispered, looking around the lifeless alleyway. for the sound of shuffling she had heard.

“Probably just a stray or something,” said Dipper, not really paying attention, too deep in thought of never going home and is this how Great uncle Ford felt when he was sucked into that portal in the basement?

Mabel got up and walked over to behind the large bin to find the source of the sound, disappearing behind it with a muffled scream.

“Mabel?!” Dipper jumped up and rushed over to where she went, in time to see two hooded figures standing up from their hidden crouches, one of them holding a struggling Mabel above the ground, a large, dark hand over her mouth. He was about to scream for help when the second figure stepped towards him and smacked something onto his cheek, knocking him out.

———

Dipper woke up all at once. One second he was asleep, the next he was wide awake, tied up, and lying on the cold hard floor in a near dark room. He started panicking as he remembered what happened, trying to get out of the zip ties holding his hands behind his back, and on his feet. After giving up he looked around for any sign of life in the dim light peeking through under what had to be a door a bit in front of him. Other then the vague outline of the door there wasn’t much Dipper could see, causing even more panic realising he couldn’t see his sister.

“Mabel?’ he choked out, looking for something, anything that would show she was there with him, but he couldn’t see anything. He was alone, and he started crying. ‘What is going on?’ he thought in-between sobs. Today was just getting better and better, and Dipper curled up on himself as best he could, tears streaming down his face, with only the knowledge that he was far from home, captured for whatever reason, and away from Mabel.

———

When Mabel woke up, it was kneeling in-front of a strange intricately drawn circle, in a room lit only by candles, with the two hooded figure on either side of her, each holding a shoulder. She had been tied up, and had duct tape over her mouth, stopping her from loudly demanding to know what the heck was going on here! 

The two figures started chanting in a strange language, and one of them grabbed Mabel’s arm, slicing a knife across it making tears spill from her eyes. They pushed her into the circle, blood from the wound spilling onto the ground making it light up. Dark smoke started to appear above the candles, whose flames had changed from the usual orange to a bright cyan blue, and swirl above her as the chant reached its crescendo. The two figures raising their arms together and said in a loud unified voice “ALCOR!”

The smoke came together, forming the shape of a floating pitch black man, with large dark wings coming out from his lower back. He had bright, throbbing, golden lines of brick work all over him, in some places braking off, and two deep pools of angry gold where his eyes should be. He said nothing, but looked at the two hooded figures in rage, both of them taking involuntary steps back in surprise, clearly not expecting this response. 

“W̧҉̴̡͎̖̘̦̗̜̪̦̗̀Ḩ̪̘̜̲̘͖̻͉͈̼̻́̕͟A҉҉͙̗͍̰͔͈̫̫̼͎̩̣͠T̷̴̶̺̳̰͓̺͓͙͖̟̻ ̢͙̯̤̯̩͖͘I̧͏̷͙̰͇͓̰͇͙̣͖͍̯S̵̢̖̣̝͓͎̼̫͙̦̖̀͟͟ ̀҉̴͈͖̠͓̳̜̣̮̝̫̖͈̣͞͝T̢҉̴̴͉̮̯̱̘͙̞͇͖̭ͅH̵̴͢͏̜̞̝̯̼̲̞̤̕Į̴̶̨҉̺̹͙̺̣͎͍̯̳̬͙̤̪͎̗̲S̸̩͓̣̬̥̝̮̫̫̱̳̰̯̬͖̬̝͟͟͢͡?̶̷̬̬̙̞̣͈͉̙̗̺̀͝!̶͏̵͎̺͚̪̗̪̙̤̖̗͚̗͓ͅ” the man roared at the figures. He looked down at Mabel and back to her kidnappers before doing a double take and staring at her in shock, with those pure golden eyes. 

“O-oh Great and Powerful Alcor, the Dreambender, w-we offer you this chil-“

“Ǹ̡̝̬͖O̸̴̢̪͇̬ͅ!” Alcor interrupted, staring down at the figures. Mabel looked up at him and could see the slight shake of his clenched fists.

“Bu-“ the other figure started, but suddenly stopped, as if having all the air from their lungs removed. They started to shake, collapsing to the ground, hands clawing at their throat drawing blood, trying to get even a single breath of air. Their accomplice started heaving as well, coughing, covering their mouth, blood seeping through their fingers, joining their accomplice on the floor. 

Mabel squeaked, and tried to move away from the two people who she just watched die. She looked back up at Alcor who was just staring at her, a sadness in his gaze, though not for the humans he had just killed. 

Floating down so he was standing on the ground, Alcor took a step towards Mabel, but stopped as he saw her flinch.

“It’s okay Mabel, I won’t hurt you, I want to help.” he flicked his hand removing her bonds,   
and didn’t he now sound faintly familiar? 

“H-how do you know my name?” she demanded, shakily. Alcor took a half step back, clearly torn between what he wanted to do, looking at her distantly. 

“That’s, not important right now. Is your… your brother here?” he said instead of answering the question. Mabel was about to ask how this Alcor guy knew she had a brother when she remembered he had also been taken. 

“OH MY GOD DIPPER!! I HAVE TO FIND HIM!!” Mabel jumped up, ignoring the so obviously a demon and raced to the door, only to find it locked. 

Mabel turned to Alcor a desperation in her eyes. “You said you wanted to help right? Where’s Dipper?”

He smiled sadly, looking away slightly, “he’s, close.”

“Wha-“ Alcor snapped his fingers, stopping Mabel’s question and opening the door.

“There’s someone in the room down the hall to the left, that should be him.” Mabel didn’t bother thanking him, and just raced down to the door at the end of the passage way, slamming her shoulder into the wood, forcing it open. 

“Could have just used the door nob but that works too I guess.”

———

Dipper’s head snapped up at the sudden sound of the door being slammed open, squinting at the light coming though.

“DIPPER!” Mabel screamed, running over and attacking him with a hug.

“MABEL!” Dipper screamed back, the zip ties disappearing, letting him hug her as well. They stayed like that for several minutes, until dipper noticed the dark shadow that had followed Mabel into the room, and he let go of her to get up and stand between them protectively in-front of his sister. 

“Sup,” said the stranger, waving his hand awkwardly. 

“Who-“

“It’s okay Dipper, that’s Alcor,” Mabel interjected, “he, helped me? I mean, probably could have done it in another way but I guess I’m alright.”

Alcor winced. “Yeeah, sorry you had to see that.”

“See what?” Dipper asked suspiciously, squinting his eyes at Alcor.

“Um.”

“LET’S not think about that, please.” Mabel said, attracting attention.

“Good idea! How about instead we think about where you two are gonna stay! Cause I have a feeling you don’t really have a place to go.” 

“How’d you know that?” Now both twins were looking at Alcor with suspicion. Dipper taking a step back to be closer to Mabel still.

“Uhh, never mind that! Um, I reckon I have a place the two of you could stay, if your comfortable with that,” Alcor offered, Dipper and Mabel looking at each other before turning their backs on him to huddle and whisper.

“I don’t trust him, you didn’t sound at all convinced when you said it was all right, and we don’t even know what he is!” Dipper said quietly.

“I know but what choice do we have, I say we do trust him.”

“WHAT? WHY?”

“Well he did still help me and it’s not like he’s wrong about not having anywhere to go right now.” Dipper thought about it. Damn it what were they going to do. He didn’t feel safe just trusting that, what ever he is, but Mabel was right. They really didn’t have anywhere to stay.

“Fine, but if we die I’m blaming you.” They turned around.

“I heard all of what you just said,” Alcor stated before Mabel could say anything, “So you two ready?” he asked.

They looked at each other one more time, before nodding, Mabel more enthusiastically then her brother.

“Great, well just stay as calm as you can and I’ll tesser us over there.”

“Wait what’s that supposed to mean?” Dipper asked, but Alcor just ignored him, putting a hand on one of their shoulders each, before the three disappeared.


	2. Hello! It’s A Demon!

Dipper (the older more demonic one, considering there were kinda two now, not that the twins knew that) tessered them to the old house he had bought all those years ago, and had lived in with his child (because now Toby was long gone, he just couldn’t deny that that was what he was. His son…. Adopted, that is). Little Dipper and Mabel stumbled around a bit after appearing, Little Dipper decidedly stumbling away from him, but that was understandable. He definitely wouldn’t have wanted to trust himself in this situation. 

Mabel was the first to recover, looking around the dust covered lounge room they found themselves in.

“Sorry about the mess, I haven't been here in a while,” Big Dipper said, brushing some dust off the arm of a couch. 

“That’s okay! It’s cosy!”

“Yeah.”

The three stood, or in Big Dippers case floated, in awkward silence for a few seconds, Little Dipper having recovered from the teleportation.

Dipper was still pitch black all over, not really wanting to change to his more human form in fear of being recognised. He was ashamed to let them see who he really was, especially considering that Mabel’s first impression of him was him killing two people. So he stayed as is. Though he did tone done the sharpness of his teeth and claws, as well as the golden brick work and eyes.

“So,” Little Dipper said, braking Big Dipper’s train of thought, “what exactly are you?”

“Dipper! Don’t be so rude!” Mabel half punched his shoulder.

“What? If we’re gonna be stuck here I’d rather know what we’re staying with!” Mabel was about to retaliate when Big Dipper put his hand up, stopping her before she started.

“It’s okay, I was kind of expecting this, I don’t exactly have the friendliest of faces.”

“Could say that again,” Little Dipper murmured quietly to himself. 

“You can call me Alcor, I’m a demon.” 

Mabel having kinda already guessed that considering she was there when he was summoned wasn’t all that surprised, and quite frankly didn’t actually care all that much. He saved them in his own, unique, way, and he was offering to help, not to mention she just had this gut feeling he was deserving of their trust. Little Dipper however. He tensed up, moving closer to his sister a defensive manner, eyes not leaving Big Dipper. 

“What do you want from us then?” Little Dipper asked, voice quiet and serious.

‘Nothing’ Dipper was going to say, but then he realised, if he was going to create a portal, something which he hadn’t every really done before, to send them back to their own dimension, that would cost something, and nothing small.

“Depends on how much help you two need. I would do it for free,” he quickly added seeing his younger human counterpart stiffen, “but I can’t do something too big without anything in return. That’s just how things work for me, there are rules I can’t break without hurting myself.” 

“We shouldn’t trust him,” Little Dipper whispered to his sister, turning away from Big Dipper yet again to console with her. 

“I know you already said that dumb dumb,” Mabel retorted, rolling her eyes.

“Yeah well that’s cause it’s true, he just said he’s a demon, like Bill.”

“Well I don’t see why we shouldn’t trust him, he helped us and now he’s offering to help us home.”

“That’s why we shouldn’t trust him! It’s just too good to be true, he’s probably going to trick us out of our soul or something.”

“Listen, Dipper,” Mabel said, her tone a lot more serious then before, “I don’t know why, but I just know we can trust him. Okay so he’s a demon, but he want’s to help us and I really don’t think he was lying when he said that. Where do you even plan to go if we don’t choose to trust Algo-“

“Alcor,” said demon corrected, from his place on the other side of the room.

“Yeah that. Just, what exactly are we gaining from hiding in an ally instead of an actual house?”

Little Dipper crossed his arms over his chest, a stubborn expression on his face refusing to look at anyone as he thought it through. Big Dipper really hopped little him would choose to trust him. Either way he was going to look out for them, it’s not like he was just going to leave them alone in a completely different dimension, in a different time, but it would be better if both twins were willing to accept his help. 

Finally the younger him looked up, both him and his sister having turned around again, to look at his older demonic counterpart, to Mabel, and then back to Big Dipper. 

“Fine, I’ll, trust you,” he finally let out dropping his arms to his side, the others relaxing at his decision. “For now, and I’m not going to make a deal with you,” he added as an after thought.

“Yeaah figured you wouldn’t want to, that’s fine.”

“And if you kill us, I’m not letting either of you hear the end of it”


	3. With Pen And Paper Shield And Sword

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just so people know, for Dipper and Mabel they're between episodes ATOTS and DD&MD.

After Alcor had healed Mabel’s arm which she had seemed to forget about when saying she was alright, he had given the twins a room to sleep in which he promptly “cleaned” (meaning he snapped his fingers and all the dust and spider webs were gone) and made two separate beds for them, in much the same layout as Dipper and Mabel’s room back home in Gravity Falls. 

He had also gotten the twins some dinner from some strange future fast food place that only made what Alcor said was “a surprisingly good mix of pastry and pasta.” Dipper had only agreed to eat his pasta pastry thingy because he and Mabel hadn’t actually eaten anything since their small breakfast that morning before getting sucked into that stupid portal. 

Alcor had said he couldn’t do much to help the twins without some kind of deal, which was not happening, thank you very much, but that he would at least look into what they could do themselves. 

Dipper just didn’t understand why or how Mabel could be so trusting of Alcor, a demon, like Bill. Granted he wasn’t a two dimensional shape or sounded like nails on a chalk board but still! For all they knew this was Bill in disguise pretending to be all nice just to laugh at them later for having trusted him at all. She’d already started making a sweater for him with some wool she had found in a closet while exploring, not to mention was constantly trying to spend time with him whenever he wasn’t finding a way to “help them” (because there is no way Dipper believed that) or dealing with a summons which was uncomfortable enough to think about as it was. Dipper may have said he’d trust Alcor for now but that didn’t mean he wanted to hang out with him, that was just asking for trouble. 

“And that’s how you tie off the end so the whole thing doesn’t unravel!” Mabel said holding up the now finished yellow and black sweater before giving it to Alcor, who accepted it with a small sad smile. “Take it as a thank you for helping us!” 

“Thank you, I haven’t had a sweater like this in a while,” he said, admiring Mabel’s handiwork.

“Demons wear hand knitted sweaters?” Dipper questioned, from his spot on the far side of the couch, where he was keeping an eye on both his sister and Alcor.

“Well I’m not so sure about anyone else but I do, when I get them.” Alcor answered.

“That’s weird.”

“Says the kid wearing a scruffy shorts, and an old worn out puffy vest.”

“Well I like your taste Almor,” Mabel interjected.

“It’s Alcor.”

“Yeah Acar that’s what I said.”

“It’s really not but okay.” 

Just before Mabel could say anything more Alcor made that weird face the twins had learnt that morning meant he was getting summoned. 

“Sorry Marbles, be back in a bit.” With that he disappeared in a puff of black smoke and flecks of golden glitter that disappeared before hitting the ground. 

A few quiet seconds passed, both twins staring at where Alcor had been. 

“Soooo, now what?” Mabel asked turning to her brother.

“Maybe we could leave while he’s not paying attention to us, perhaps find someone who isn’t a demon that’s willing to help us,” Dipper half jokingly, half seriously suggested, as Mabel moaned dramatically.

“Ugh come on Dipper, I thought you said you trusted Arco already!”

“Seriously Mabel? He’s a demon we can’t actually trust him to want to help us! It’s only a matter of time before this whole thing blows up in our face and one of us get hurt!” 

“Well at least I’m giving him a shot to prove himself! You’re just assuming he’s evil because he’s a demon, that’s species-ist!” 

“Species-ist? Now you’re just making stuff up!”

“Am not Alaw told me about that this morning while we ate breakfast!”

“Alcor! His name’s Alcor! A demon! Who get’s summoned to who know’s where just like Bill!”

“That’s one thing! He’s been nothing but nice to us!”

Both Dipper and Mabel were standing now, Dipper turned away from his sister, partly because he could see she wouldn’t change her mind, no matter how much reasoning he gave, but mostly because he couldn’t think of anything else to say without repeating himself over and over.

“Come on Bro-bro, he’s just trying to help.” Dipper remained silent, both staying like that for several minutes.

“Am I interrupting something?” Alcor asked, returning from his summons, causing Dipper to definitely not scream and jump a little. 

“Alrar! How was your summons?” Mabel said before noticing he was holding something. “And what you got there?” she asked, before he could respond to the first question.

“Ah, yeah it was good, this is what I got in the deal, pretty cool right!” Alcor showed the twins the box he was holding, which appeared to be for a board game of some kind before Dipper realise, that while the designs were different, it looked an awful lot like.

“Is that Dungeons, Dungeons and More Dungeons?” Dipper asked, wide eyed, and just a little excited.

“Oh you like it do you? I definitely did not know that. Yeah it is, one of the older editions too, so it still used real graph paper!” Alcor exclaimed, smiling down at the box.

“OH MY GOSH! You two could play this nerd thing to get to know each other better!” Mabel suggested, bouncing up and down slightly looking between Alcor and Dipper.

“I’m, I’m up for that. I haven’t been able to play this ages.”

“Umm.” Dipper looked away awkwardly. On the one hand, demon, on the other, DD&MD. 

“Go on Dipper! I know you wanna play this nerd game! Plus!-“ Mabel leaned in closer to Dipper, “maybe you could use this time to finally realise he’s not going to kill us,” she loudly whispered to him.

Dipper looked at Alcor, then the game he was holding, then Mabel, and finally, the game again.

“Okay. I’ll play with you,” Dipper said, obviously trying to seem uninterested and failing spectacularly. He hadn’t been able to play Dungeons, Dungeons and More Dungeons in what felt like ages, and he didn’t want to have to spend the few hours needed to play the game properly with a demon, but, well lets just say it had been long enough since Dipper’s last campaign he could overlook what exactly he was playing with. 

“YES!” Mabel screamed, throwing a hand in the air.

“This’ll be interesting,” Alcor said to himself at the same time.

“OKAY! Imma leave you two to your nerd bonding game! Have fun!” and with that Mabel left the room, smiling successfully.

The room fell silent.

“So. Want to get set up?” Alcor asked, and Dipper looked up at him. He looked so inhuman, pitch black, pointed ears, teeth and claws, and a pair of wings coming out of his lower back. But when he looked at him, heard him talk, he couldn’t help but feel he knew who Alcor was, and that he could be trusted, just like what Mabel had said. It was the strangest feeling, and it was the strongest point he had to not trust the demon.

“Sure, we going to make new character or just use the pre-made one?” Well, Dipper figured it couldn’t hurt to believe those feelings for just a little while.

Three hours later, and he didn’t regret giving Alcor a chance. An extra two hours, Mabel coming back into the front room to demand they stop “nerd-ing out for five minutes! I’m getting hungry!” A small dinner and another 3 hours passed, and Dipper was going to bed, still unsure, but more trusting then before he and Alcor journeyed into the mysterious forest of Boore to save Princess Unattainabelle from an army of trolls working for Probabilitor the Annoying. 

Maybe that had been Alcor’s plan, to trick Dipper into trusting him by pretending to like DD&MD, but he was tired now, and quite frankly, just wanted to be able to trust someone in this other dimension. If Alcor really wasn’t to be trusted, that meant he and Mabel probably didn’t have any chance of making it home which worried Dipper to no end. He could worry himself sick tomorrow though, so he closed his eyes and fell into a peaceful sleep, quite unlike the his first and previous one the night before.


	4. And Then It Hit Him

Waking up the next day Mabel smiled as she noticed the smell of pancakes waft into her and Dipper’s room, for a moment managing to believe he and herself were still back in the Shack. The moment was ruined when she opened her eyes however, and saw the unfamiliar ceiling, devoid of her colourful posters and the wooden rafters, instead a plain, dull white finish covering everything. Their room, when Alcor had given it to the twins two days ago when they first arrived had, under all the dust and cobwebs, appeared to be an office, put there more out of a sense of every house having an office rather then as a place to actually work in. There was another room on the floor they were on, but Alcor had asked they stay out of it for whatever reason. He had gone suddenly quiet and distant when she had asked about it and Mabel could not be having that, while he might be a demon who she had seen kill two people - in his defence to save her - and she had only known for two days she felt really close to him, like they had already known each other for years.

Sitting up, Mabel got out of bed, and noticing Dipper was missing from his own, made her way downstairs to the kitchen slash dinning room to eat the source of the delicious smell and find him.

“Good morning Aclor, good morning Dipper,” Mabel said sitting at the table next to her brother, who was busy reading the rule book for that nerd game he and Alcor had played all of yesterday afternoon.

“Mornin’” Dipper mumbled, not looking up from the massive novel.

“My name’s not, eh what ever your getting closer. Good morning,” Alcor said, placing the last of the pancakes he had cooked on a plate which he brought to the table. “Dig in.”

“Alcor I still don’t think that move you did last night was allowed, I can’t find anything that says someone can just eat an entire army,” Dipper complained putting the rules book down to take some pancakes. 

“Ah yes but could you find anything that said I couldn’t do that?”

“I still think you shouldn’t have been allowed to do that.” Alcor just shrugged and started to eat his pancakes like everyone else.

“Soo,” Mabel said, braking the silence that had fallen in the room, “you, find a way for us to get back home yet?” she asked, voice slightly smaller then her usual bright and bubbly way of speaking. Contrary to her actions the previous two days, she was actually the most anxious about getting back home. Sure Dipper was more then terrified about being stuck in another dimension, but if the Author, his Great Uncle, and hero for the past few months thanks to the Journal - which he had dropped when the portal showed up - could survive, he at least had that in mind, but Mabel. Being pulled into another dimension, away from all her friends and almost all her family, she just wanted to go home, but couldn’t really see how that was possible. Stan had had a physical devise to fix, but there had been nothing for them, just a swirling rainbow portal in the middle of no where, connected to nothing.

“Not just yet, I’m sorry. It, it’s looking like it’s going to take a while for me find a way for you guys to get back. Sorry.” Everyone went quiet, all loosing their appetite.

“Well, I should, go keep looking for solutions. Just, call my name if you need me,” Alcor said before getting up and disappearing.

Dipper and Mabel sat, poking at their pancakes they didn’t really want to eat any more for a few more minutes, until Dipper also got up and left the room, mumbling something about going over the rule books again, leaving Mabel alone with their cooling breakfast, and her thoughts and fears of never going home.

———

Dipper dragged a claw tipped hand down his face, taking a deep breath of air he didn’t need. He had spent whatever time the last few days trying to find way to help his younger human counterpart and his Mabel back to their dimension, but he still hadn’t come up with anything useful that didn’t result in having to make a deal with them. If he could just do that he could easily have gotten them home but he knew enough about what he was like as a human and had Little Dipper prove more than enough times that a demon deal was out of the question. The closest Dipper had come to finding a plausible idea was finding a way to rebuild Fords old portal but everything that made it was long gone, either to reuse or the simple passage of time destroying what it had once been, not to mention it was an incredibly dangerous and unpredictable solution even if it was still all in one working piece. 

He continued to float around his plot in the mindscape for what could have been anything from hours to seconds, searching his mind for ideas, when he felt the small, but strong and insistent tung of an unavoidable summons. Forcing himself to take a brake he followed the line to a candle lit basement where Dipper made his usual W̨̬H́O̺ ͔͇̜̤͖̖ͅD̪̣͕̲̼̱ͅA̴͓R͖̹Ḛ̖̺̱S҉͕̰ ͖̻̖S̨͇̞Ų̯̻̬͓̻̼M͔̫͇̠M͔͚O͚̠N ̺̖͚̖̹͎̖A͕͉L̥C̷͖͕̬̬̹̝͈O̶̹R̝̯͓̮͈ entrance and saw a professional looking woman standing in front of the A grade circle. Other than the fact she was not wearing any robes but instead a nice clean - save the little bit of goats blood on the sleeves - business suit, it was clear this was a fairly normal summoning where the woman, Jasmine, his omniscience supplied, was asking for completely unoriginally power. 

As Jasmine started her rant everyone seemed to give when demanding power, Dipper stopped paying proper attention to her, thinking again instead about the other Dipper and Mabel back at his old house. When Mabel had explained what had happened to bring them here, he had taken a quick look into the possibility of inter-dimensional portals just spontaneously appearing out of no where and figured that while it was technically possible, there was probably some other factor that she and Little Dipper had missed. It was a stupidly rare phenomena, even rarer then his very existence meaning they had most likely accidentally stumbled across an area of strong magical importance at the wrong time and not realised it. 

That’s when an idea hit him. That was it! How had he not remembered that sooner, it would be so easy and they wouldn’t have to make a deal with him! 

He put his hand up to stop Jasmines ranting and interrupted her. “Okay okay I get the gist you get power I get half the cows on your brother ranch, yeah done deal, let’s hurry this up I got places to be.” Dipper held out a flaming hand and Jasmine took it greedily, not noticing the loopholes that were obvious to himself. 

Summons over and done with he rushed back to his house, materialising in the living room, excited to finally give the twins the good news they were waiting for, ideas speeding through his head. 

“Hey guys, guess what I finally figured out!” he called upstairs where he noticed they both were. Floating quickly upstairs he went straight towards the door to the room he could see they were in and froze. It was the room he had asked them to stay out of, one he hadn’t had the courage to enter since the funeral. Toby’s door sat slightly ajar, frantic whispers coming from behind it. Taking a deep breath he suddenly felt he did need, Dipper pushed the door fully open and went inside.


	5. A Birthday Card

After a few moments of staring at pancakes she didn’t feel like eating any more Mabel got up from the table to find Dipper. She just, needed to think about something else, something that wasn’t the crushing possibility of never seeing the Shack again, or Stan, Soos, Wendy, Candy and Grenda, Mum and Dad, or even Ford who they’d only recently just started getting to know. She just needed to distract herself. 

She found him quickly, curled up on the couch in the living area, rule book forgotten on the floor, and clearly in need of a distraction himself. Time to start Operation Be Super Duper Happy And Not As Glum And Blegh Feeling. 

“Hey Dippingsauce! What’cha doin’?” she practically shouted, jumping on the back of the couch to better lean over and see her brother. 

“Not now Mabel, I’m not really feeling it,” Dipper mumbled into his knees, not bothering to look over at her. Well obviously he didn’t feel it that was why they both needed Operation B.S.D.H.A.N.A.G.A.B.F. 

“Well I’m not having that! Come on! Play with me!” Mabel said, moving around the couch to stand in front of him, looking as determined and prepared for anything as a Mabel could, but Dipper didn’t acknowledge her, just continued to curl up on himself. Mabel narrowed her eyes in thought, thinking of a way to get her brother to stop being so upset, until an idea bloomed and her expression changed to one of pure mischief.

“Fine,” Mabel started, taking a few necessary steps closer, “I guess you won’t mind then if I unleash the tickle sister!” she laughed, firing her wriggling fingers towards all her brothers weak points.

“What?! No! Mabel stop! Hahaha!” Dipper started laughing, and tried, unsuccessfully, to escape his determined sisters tickling.

“NEVER!” 

A few minutes more of tickling later, Dipper getting Mabel back as good as he could, their laughter died down and Dipper had a small smile. Success!

“Well that happened. Now what?” he asked, feeling significantly better.

“Hmm, don’t know. Operation B.S.D.H.A.N.A.G.A.B.F only went as far as making you happy.”

“Operation what now?” 

“Wait, I do know!” Mabel exclaimed interrupting her brother’s question. “Let’s do a treasure hunt! Whoever finds the weirdest thing wins!” 

“Why?” 

“Cause it sounds fun!” Mabel jumped off the couch and ran to the door way. “Come on! Winner gets to boss the other around for the rest of the day!” 

“Oh you’re on!” Jumping off the couch himself Dipper rushed past Mabel to start looking. Opening cupboard doors, looking behind furniture and briefly exploring the tiny back garden the two looked everywhere for the weirdest object. 

“I found a taxidermy lizard, that’s pretty weird,” Dipper said holding it away from himself, showing Mabel.

“Eh, we have heaps of them at the Shack,” she reasoned opening another drawer.

“That doesn’t make it any less weird.” 

“Hey look what I found!” Mabel grabbed the small card out of the drawer and showed Dipper.

“A birthday card, Mabel that’s not weird, everyone has those.” Dipper look the card from his sister and looked at the faded letters, barely able to read the “HAPPY 9TH BIRTHDAY!” written on the front. 

“Yeah but Alnar’s a demon, why does he have one,” Mabel reasoned, snatching it back and opening it up. 

“Oh yeah, that is weird. What’s it say inside?” 

“Hard to tell, it’s all faded and smudgy.” Mabel looked closer, just barely making out a few words. “To, Toby. Happy, gonna assume that’s birthday. From. Smudge. Who’s Toby?” 

“I, I don’t know. This is weird I don’t like this. Why would Alcor have a birthday card for some random kid?”

“Maybe he knew him, maybe he IS the smudge!”

“Why would a demon care about a kids birthday?”

“Why would a demon want to help us?” Mabel reasoned, watching her brother as he started pacing back and forth, trying to think of a reasonable explanation. 

“I need to see something,” Dipper said, leaving Alcor’s room to stand in front of the door of the room they were both told not to enter. 

“Dipper what are you thinking?” Mabel asked looking nervously between him and the door. 

“I think I have an idea why he had that, what if Alcor stole this place from the original owners, a family with a kid called Toby.” 

Mabel didn’t say anything, she just became more nervous. Getting Dipper paranoid about Alcor’s true motives was not part of her plan. 

Dipper turned and looked her in the eye. “Don’t you think it’s a little strange Alcor told us not to enter this room, no rules about anywhere else, just this one.” 

“Well he probably just has some personal stuff in there.” Dipper ignored Mabel and opened the door, taking a step inside and turning on the light. 

Inside it looked like a perfectly normal room, if a bit dusty and covered in spider webs. There was a bed by the window, a clear, empty desk with a small mirror, a set of drawers, and an assortment of dull old photos stuck to a wall. 

“This isn’t, exactly what I was expecting,” Dipper said, moving further inside, carefully avoiding the cobwebs. 

“See Dipper? It’s just a normal room! Nothing what so ever to be scared of!” Mabel said, partly to herself, her heart racing just a little faster then normal. 

“But that still doesn’t make any sense! It’s a normal bedroom, great, but then why didn’t Alcor want us in here?” Dipper moved further into the room, looking the photos stuck to the wall. They seemed stiffer then normal paper, as if they were electronic in some way, but no less faded and hard to make out then the card.

“Does it really matter why he didn’t want us in here?” Mabel asked, looking around nervously, as if worried she’s find evidence of what Dipper had accused Alcor of doing. “Let’s just go back to what we were doing, there’s nothing here anyway.” 

“But why?! Surely there should be something about this room he didn’t want us to see! He’s hiding something big, we can’t trust him!” 

“Seriously? I thought you trusted him already! What about that nerd game you played with him! Did that mean nothing?” 

“Mabel he want us to let our guards down, he’s up to something and it’s nothing good!” Dipper paused for a second, thinking something over in his head before making up his mind and grabbing Mabel’s hand, leading her to the door.

“Wha-? Dipper what are you doing?” she asked, pulling away. 

“We need to leave before he get’s back, it’s not safe here.” 

“Come on Dipper! Not this again! Where would we even go? Alco’s trying to help us!” 

“How can you be so sure about that! How can-“

“Hey guys, guess what I finally figured out!” Alcor’s voice interrupted from down stairs. 

The twins froze, both looking at the door. This was not good, this was very, very not good. This was not part of Operation B.S.D.H.A.N.A.G.A.B.F. This was Operation Make Dipper Not Trust Alcor Again And Most Probably Get In Trouble Cause They Were In The One Room They Were Told To Stay Out Of, and that is not a fun plan! 

Dipper quickly turned around looking around the room for a moment before leaning closer to Mabel. “We can escape through the window, come on,” he whispered in her ear, already pushing her towards it. 

“Escape? No! Dipper we’re not leaving!” she yell whispered back, taking a step away from him. 

“Mabel we can find someone else who could help us, let’s go now while we still can!” 

As Mabel opened her mouth to explain why they shouldn’t leave again, the sound of the door, opening fully stopped her, turning around she saw Alcor hovering in the doorway, looking around the room they were standing in. 

“I-“ he paused, taking a deep breath, seeming to be trying to compose himself, “I thought I told you two to stay out of here,” he said, softly, finally looking at them both. Mabel wasn’t sure if it was just the light being reflected in his eyes, but they looked wetter, definitely sadder though, not the reaction either were expecting. When no one answered his gaze lowered to the card Mabel still held in her hand. 

“Where did you find that?” he asked, just as quietly as before, pointing at it. Dipper grabbed her other hand from behind on instinct. Why he wasn’t yelling at Alcor, accusing him of all manner of crimes she wasn’t quite sure, but it was probably the same almost suffocating emotion that had fallen on them when the demon had entered the room, which was what was making it so hard for her to respond now herself. 

“A drawer,” she mumbled. She wasn’t scared, she was just struggling to breath calmly, her limbs shaking just a bit to much to be comfortable, and could feel the speeding thump thump thump of her heart. Alcor was helping them, he wouldn’t hurt them for something like this, right? Dipper was wrong about him, he had to be, just this once. 

“Why do you have it?” 

“No, why do you have it?” Dipper repeated, taking a step forward. “Who’s Toby?” 

Alcor looked at Dipper, then Mabel, and then the room again. He was certainly tearing up now. 

“You know, I haven’t been in here since he died,” he choked out, ignoring the question, still deathly silent. 

“So you did kill them!” Dipper shouted, his accusation causing Alcor's attention to snap in their direction, and he forced Mabel behind him. “I knew it!” 

Alcor looked at him in horror, seemingly shrinking in size, curling in on himself. 

“I, no never! I couldn’t! I, I wouldn’t ever! He, he was, I, I lo- I.” Alcor shrieked, he had definitely shrunk, and the more he did so the more he curled around himself, his wings shielding him from the outside world. Soon all Dipper and Mabel could see of the demon was his deep black wings cocooned protectively, rocking back and forwards on the ground, small whimpering and fragmented apologies to someone long gone drifting from within in. 

The twins looked at each other, unsure as to how they were supposed to respond to this. 

“Al-, Alcor, are you, okay?” Mabel asked tentatively, moving out from behind her brother towards him. The rocking stopped, and Alcor’s wings shivered slightly and slowly, reluctantly, began to retreat. Before they had uncovered him completely he started talking.

“I’m sorry guys. I just, I don’t know what came over me. I, I’m sorry.” he said, as his wings shrunk down and…

He looked like. But the eyes weren’t human, and his ears were pointed. But he did. It couldn't be right. His tears were gold, yet he… 

“Why do you look like me?” Dipper mumbled, eyes wide as plates, staring at himself, no, a demon pretending to be him, that was all this was! An act!

Alcor stopped wiping away his tears and stiffened, looking at his now considerably younger hands, and groaned, hiding his face behind them. “I did not need this today,” he muttered into them, and somehow Dipper and Mabel just knew this wasn't a trick, and that what they were seeing was the real Alcor, was the Dipper of this dimension. 

“No,” was all Human Dipper said before sprinting off out of the room. 

“Dipper wait!” Mabel and Demon Dipper called out in near unison. Mabel ran after him, as Demon Dipper quickly aged up again and floated after them both. The two of them made it downstairs just in time to see Dipper slam the front door behind him running away from the house. 

Before Mabel could go after him a clawed hand gently held her shoulder in place. “Let him have some space. I think I’d probably need it as well.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lets just ignore the fact Dipper and Mabel are in the future and that language would have changed so they shouldn't have been able to read that card but what ever. Who needs realism anyway? :p


	6. Let's Talk

Mabel and Dipper - the demon one, not her Dipper, the one that failed to tell them that he was a Dipper to begin with - sat in silence in the lounge. 

“So, other demon Dipper,” Mabel said after a few seconds more, fidgeting with the bottom of her sweater.

“Just, keep calling me Alcor, it’ll get rid of any confusion,” Dipp- Alcor said. 

“Right, Alaw.” Mabel had a small cheeky smile as she saw Alcor groan in annoyance. 

“Seriously? I know you can pronounce that correctly now!” 

“Yeah but it’s fun seeing you get annoyed by it,” Mabel paused for a second, “Hu, maybe you being a Dipper is why I enjoyed annoying you so much, ha, yeah!” 

Alcor sighed with a small smile of his face at her antics. She might not be his sister, but she was still Mabel, and he’d missed this. Mabel lost her smile not soon after and went back to fidgeting. 

“We should look for my Dipper,” she said quietly looking at the front door. 

Alcor put a hesitant hand on her shoulder and Mabel turned to look at him. “He can’t have gone too far from here, let’s just, give him some space to process all this.” 

“But what if he gets lost? How will we find him?” Mabel turned to look at the door again, worries and concerns flowing through her mind. “What if he’s in trouble? Or he gets hurt? What if he needs me?” On the last question her voice turned into a sob, tears that just showed up threatening to spill. 

“Oh no, ah, it’s okay, Mabel, um, look, I can easily find him just like that, no problem.” Alcor pulled Mabel into a hug and squeezed her tight, a few tears staining his front. “I, I promise he’ll be alright.” 

Mabel moved back and looked up at him, sniffing and wiping away her tears as she calmed down. “Really?” she asked hopefully. 

“Yeah, you’ve got nothing to worry about.” 

“Right, yeah, Dipper’ll be fine, he just needs space.” 

Silence fell over the room for a second time, no one really knowing what to say, or how to say it. 

“How about this,” Alcor said, breaking the silence. “I’m, sure you’ve got questions, so how would you feel if, if Dipper hasn’t returned on his own by the time I’ve finished answering them, we go find him. What’d you think?” 

Mabel thought it over, there were quite a few things she wanted explained, and this meant that they would go looking for Dipper. “Okay, sure,” she said quietly. 

“Great, um, hit me with your first question then, I guess,” Alcor declared, and Mabel thought for a second, before coming up with one. 

“Who’s Toby? I, kinda sorta really want to know now, seeing, that’s what cause us to learn who you are.” 

“Yeeah, him, right. Um, well, you see, he, was ah, my, kind of, in a way, my, son,” Alcor said, mumbling out the last word as quickly as he could to hide what he was saying. 

He had been clear enough though that Mabel know exactly what he had called Toby. Her eyes lit up and a giant smile stretched across her face, her hands coming up and cupping her cheeks as she let out a loud squeal of excitement. 

Alcor grimaced at the loud frequency and waited for her to let it all out. “You done?” he asked when she finally stopped. 

“Yes,” she chirped, still beaming. 

“Right, um, I should probably point out before we get any further he was adopted, not actually, mine mine, but yeah, sorta mine, I guess.” 

“DAWWWWW. Too cute!” Mabel cooed, clasping her hands together. 

Alcor blushed a bright red, laughing awkwardly and looking away from her to the side. “Ha, yeah, okay, next question, please.” 

Mabel leaned against Alcor’s side, staring up at him with a sympathetic expression. “Did you love him?” she asked. 

Alcor look a second to think, obviously he loved Toby but, who he used to be, he. No, that didn’t matter right now, the question was did he love Toby. “Yes, of course I did.” 

“There there,” Mabel said, patting his leg, “it’s okay.” 

Alcor chuckled quietly at her antics. “Thanks. How about next non-Toby related question.”

“Fine,” Mabel said, moving away from Alcor to think. “Um, so, if you’re a demon, does that mean I am too?”

“Uhhh, n-no, it was just me who was a demon.” Alcor paused and looked down at his clawed hands, thinking for a second. “Yeah, just me.” 

“How does that work?” 

“We both started out human, when we were about your age shi- stuff happened. I’ve been stuck like this ever since.”

“Oh, where’s other me then?”

“Over a thousand two hundred years in the past.” 

“..Oh.”

The two of them returned to silence. Mabel didn’t really know how to react to that, the idea that Alcor, this alternate version of her brother, had outlived his Mabel by that long, she wouldn’t know what she’d do if she had to do that. 

“Can we find Dipper now?” Her voice was quiet and hesitant, not wanting to interrupt the silence, but needing to regardless. 

“Of course,” Alcor said, standing up, quickly followed by Mabel. 

“So how are we going to find him?” she asked feeling better now that they were going to get her brother. 

“I can use my powers to find particular souls and their location. Once I find him I can take us straight to him.” 

“Really?!” 

“Yup! Just give me a second to look.” Alcor closed his eyes and began to search the city for the soul that looked so much like his own. As Mabel watched him though his face became more and more worried and concerned, causing her to get worried himself. Maybe it was normal for Alcor to struggle to find someone, she didn't need to worry about not being able to find her Dipper, Alcor had certainly made it sound easy enough to do this. 

After a minute of searching Alcor opened his eyes and looked at Mabel. 

“Did you find him?” she asked, her hope slowly fading as she saw the expression on his face. 

Alcor sorted through his thoughts, trying to make sense of what he found, but the only conclusions he was getting were anything but good. 

“Well?” Mabel was definitely worried now. They had left it too long, Dipper was in danger and they hadn’t been looking for him, she shouldn’t have left him to go out alone this was bad, this was very very bad. 

“I, I know he’s not too far from here, I just, can’t pinpoint his location.” 

“But, you said you’d be able to take us straight to him!” 

“And normally I’d be able to but somethings stopping me from Seeing him. You stay here, I’m going to go look around and see if I can find him.” 

“What?! No way am I just gonna wait around here while you go out and look for my brother alone! I’m coming with you!” Mabel exclaimed, stomping her foot and putting her hands on her hips. “If Dipper’s in danger I need to be there to help him!” 

“Definitely not! If Dipper’s in danger I am not putting you in the line of fire as well!” 

“Would your Mabel just sit around while you went out and did dangerous stuff?” When Mabel said that Alcor couldn’t help but remember every cult he and his Mabel fought, every monster and demon they stopped, every time she refused to let him go by himself. 

“Well, no but-“ 

“No buts! I’m coming with!” 

“But you’re. And she was. And it might. But it. And. AGH! Fine! But you are going to do exactly as I say!”


	7. Well That's Just Fantastic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally finished it! So sorry this took so long guys I’ll try to be quicker with the next one :)

Dipper rushed down the street, away from the house he’d had to stay in the last few days, away from that demon, the one that just couldn’t be him! Screw the logic that in a multiverse as large as theirs he had to be a demon somewhere it just couldn’t be what was happening! Alcor was tricking them, trying to get them to trust him, he was lying! 

Except, he wasn’t. Dipper hated to admit it, but looking back Alcor had always had something about him that seemed vaguely familiar. 

Shaking his head he stormed around the corner, coming across a park with a small, abandoned playground —at least, he assumed it was a playground, it looked significantly more future-y then the one’s he was used to. Dipper walked up to the bench and sat down, he just needed to think. If Alcor was really a version of himself, that explained why he wanted to help them, but why would he lie about being him. And what about Mabel, was she a demon here? If so then where was she? Then what about their parents, Grunkle Stan and Great Uncle Ford? What about their friends? 

Maybe he’d over reacted, running away, he just, didn’t know what to do. There they’d been, looking at himself, but he had pointed ears, sharp teeth, bat-wings and eyes that looked like inverted versions of Bill’s. 

Dipper shuddered and pulled his legs up, holding them close to his chest. Was Bill human here? Were their roles reversed? What if he was actually the evil one here? What if leaving Mabel there by herself was a mistake? What if she’s in danger?

Questions continued to fill Dipper’s mind, when he felt someone sit next to him. It was a man, looking at the empty playground. Dipper scooted slightly away from him. 

‘Please just be waiting for your kids or something like that, please just ignore me!’ he thought.

“Hey Kid.” Bugger. “You okay?” The guy turned to face him properly, and Dipper moved slightly further from him again.

“Uh, yeah, I’m, I’m fine.” ‘Please just go away and leave me alone!’ 

“You sure? Where are your parents?” He sounded genuine, like he had just seen a child by themselves by a park and wanted to help, but Dipper would really rather not risk it, already having been kidnapped once since getting here. 

“They’re, um, just around the corner!” Dipper lied, pointing towards the one he had come around to get there, uncurling his legs ready to run. “Yeah, they’re, um, getting stuff from the car. I-in fact, I should probably go, go help them.” Dipper stood up and slowly started the move away from the man, watching him as he stood up as well. 

“Do you want us to come with you? Wouldn’t want you to just disappear.” 

“Us?” he squeaked out, before walking backwards into someone, who quickly grabbed his shoulders and where has she come from? 

“Yeah, it would be such a shame,” the heavyset woman holding him said. Panicking Dipper pulled to get his arms free but her hold wouldn’t budge. When he tried to scream one of the hands moved to his mouth, a strange smelling cloth covering it and please no not again! The air to the right of the man shimmered, and a third person appeared, three fox tails waving in the air behind them. 

“I know, I always feel so sad when I hear that another child’s gone missing on the news,” they said, and before Dipper could process what was happening his vision darkened and his body began relaxing against his will. As Dipper relaxed and drifted into unconsciousness he felt the woman pick him up and begin walking. 

Why me?

———

When Dipper woke up, slowly, unlike the first time this had happened, the first thing he noticed was that he wasn’t alone. He was leaning against someones side, their arm nudging him a bit as he began to wake up. 

“Hey, dude, you awake?” they asked, whispering. 

Dipper opened his eyes squinting up at them, mind groggy and unsure of what was happening. “Wha-?” he said, sitting up a bit and looking around the small, dimly lit room. Including the person who was next to him, a guy in his late teens, there were four people. An older woman and another boy around probably just a bit younger then Dipper himself talking by a door in front of him, and a girl in her early twenties sitting next to a small pile of rope watching everyone else. “What’s going on?” he asked. 

“Well now that you’re awake we’re gonna escape,” the guy said, getting up. “Think you can stand up?” He offered his hand to Dipper, who took it standing up himself. 

“Why would-? Where-? Who are you what’s going on?” he asked, looking around, everyone else noticing he was awake now as well. 

“Well we’ve all been kidnapped and are gonna be sacrificed to a demon who’s going to kill us all or worse,” the girl to the side said, not getting up or moving from her spot. Dipper stared at her processing what she said, suddenly remembering what had happened before he woke up. 

“Rachael!” the woman snapped, putting her hands on her hips giving the girl, Rachael, a stern look. 

“What? It’s what happened! A bunch of crazy cultists kidnapped us and are gonna use us as human sacrifices to get power or money or whatever the hell it is they want!” she snapped back defensively. 

“Look who’s talking,” the guy muttered, placing a hand on Dipper’s shoulder, pulling him out of his shock. 

Rachael groaned, moving her hand up to pinch the bridge of her nose. “First of all I said they were crazy, which I’m fairly certain I’m not. And secondly, for the final time, the Circle is not a cult!” 

“What?” Dipper asked, reminding the group he was still there before the guy could retort. 

“Just ignore her,” the woman said with a dismissive wave. “She already decided she wouldn’t be joining us.” 

“Yeah!” the other kid piped in. “But we’re gonna escape before anyone else can hurt us! Mandy has a plan and it’s awesome!” he said bouncing a bit. 

“And it’s not gonna work.”

“Oh just shut up Rachael!” 

Mandy sighed, shaking her head. “Don’t worry kid, we will get out of this. I know you’re probably really confused and scared right now but it’ll all be okay if you stick with us,” she said in an attempt to comfort Dipper. It, didn’t really work, he was still trying to process the fact he had been kidnapped again -and it had only been around three days since the last time!- was stuck in a room with a supposed cultist, and trapped in said room by different cultists who planned to sacrifice him to a new demon who, for all he knew, could be Grunkle Stan or Wendy or anyone else he knows! But he appreciated her trying. 

“Thanks. I’m Dipper,” he said, holding out his hand towards her. 

“Mandy,” she replied, shaking his hand, then motioning towards the guy next to Dipper and then the kid. “That’s Max, and this is Norm.” 

“Hi!”

“So, what’s happening now?” Dipper asked, walking towards the door, Max following behind. 

“We’re waiting for someone to come get us,” Mandy explained. “They won’t be expecting us to have gotten out of the ropes which, by the way were upsettingly easy to undo. Then we’ll attack and tie them up with the rope, leaving when we know the coast is clear.” 

Dipper nodded along most of it making sense except for a few minor things. “How will we know which way to go to get out of here? And what happens if we come across anyone else? This sounds good for getting us out of the room but what comes next?” 

“Well I was awake by the time we arrived here so I can vaguely remember which way to go,” Norm said. “Though I guess we’re just hoping no one finds us,” he shrugged sounding unsure of that solution. 

Max crouched down a bit, reaching Dipper’s eye level. “We’ll do our best to stay out of sight as long as we can, it’s the most we can really hope for, and if Norm remembers correctly this place isn’t too big. We will get out of this. It’ll be okay.” The last part had seemed to have been more said for himself, rather that to the group, but it was nice to think about regardless. 

Plan in hand, if a bit incomplete, everyone -excluding Rachael- waited by the door, ready for when someone came for them. The room went quiet, no one really knowing how to fill it, what to talk about, so they waited in silence. 

Almost half an hour since Dipper woke up there was the sound of foot steps coming towards where they were all trapped, a small cough and the rustling of keys right behind the door, a slight hesitation, possibly at the lack of sound coming from their end. Everyone got in position, Dipper and Norm staying to one side, out of the way, and Max and Mandy each standing one side of the door.

“You lot better not be up to anything in there,” a deep voice said from the other side of the door as it began to open. 

Once the man stepped in the room Max punched him as hard as he could in the head. Dazed he stumbled to the side towards Mandy, who wrapped some of the rope around his neck, holding it tightly in place, blocking the airway leaving him gasping futilely. The man struggled under her grip but she was significantly stronger then she looked, not letting up, and after two minutes longer he slumped back against Mandy, who promptly dropped him. 

She swiftly began tying him up, Max joining with his feet. “We need to act quickly,” she panted finishing her knot. “We don’t know how long we will have before someone notices something’s gone wrong. Norm, ready to lead the way?” 

“As ready as I’ll ever be.” Norm took a wary step outside, looking each way, and taking another. 

“Have fun getting caught!” Rachael teased as Mandy, Dipper and Max followed. 

“Have fun with your cultist buddies!” Max teased back getting a scowl in response, carefully closing the door behind him. Once it was closed the four of them began making their way down the corridor. 

Going around the first corner Dipper noticed the strange markings lining the walls about a meter off the ground. 

“Sigils,” Max whispered softly behind him, and Dipper looked at him. “They’ll be the reason these nut jobs have been getting away with all this, hiding what’s happening in here from out there.” 

Continuing forward Dipper didn’t know how he felt about that, as with pretty much everything else that’s happened since getting to this dimension. On one hand he’s been kidnapped a second time by people who plan to kill him, on the other he doesn’t need to worry about a demonic version of himself hunting him down. Maybe he should try taking some mental notes, for once he got Mabel out of danger. That’d probably be a good idea. 

After a few more corners, stoping and rushing ahead, being as careful as they could to stay out of sight, Norm turned to them. “The way out should be just over there out that door,” he whispered, pointing to the door in question. 

Freedom was right there! They could get out of here, get help and call the police! ‘Maybe I could ask Mandy or Max to help,’ Dipper thought to himself, “they seem nice enough I’m sure they could find a way to help Mabel and I!’ 

They all rushed towards the door, not bothering to check and see if the coast was clear, only worrying about getting out of here before anyone else could stop them. 

“Hey! Where do you four think you’re going?!”


	8. Freedom?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey people who for some reason have decided they like my writing. Quick a/n just want to first of all thank you all for being so patient with my current, terrible updating schedule, and also just wanted to make sure that you are all aware that there will almost defiantly not be another chapter this year. I'm not giving up or leaving it, it's just as of the end of next week I am not going to have any access to my laptop or the internet until Christmas (I'm going to be trekking around Vietnam and Cambodia :)) so I'm only really going to be able to work on the next chapter when I come back afterwards. 
> 
> Again, thank you all for giving me your support it always makes me so happy seeing people enjoying this :)

The voice came from behind them, thundering footsteps filling the hallway as more cultists noticed the four of them nearing the door. 

“Run!” someone yelled, Dipper wasn’t sure who, but figured it was probably a good idea to listen to them regardless. They were so close to the the door, so close to getting away from these people, but as Mandy, Max, and Norm got closer to freedom Dipper began to fall behind them. 

It started small, a barely noticeable hum in the back of his head, but as he got nearer to the door that hum grew, until what was a minor ignorable annoyance suddenly became a mind searing problem. It only lasted a few seconds, but to Dipper it felt like hours, the pain spreading from his head down. It felt he like wasn’t fully there, like every cell in his body was fighting just to be there, and it was enough of a pause that someone caught up to him. 

The moment the hand landed on his shoulder the pain disappeared as if it had never been there, bringing him back to himself with a startled scream. 

“Dipper!” Max was yelling, and when Dipper looked up all three of them were almost by the door, the cultists closing in on them. He had to get free, he had to reach them before it was too late, he just had to! Dipper tried to pull his arm free from the person holding onto it, who he vaguely recognised in the back of his mind as the man who had sat next to him when he was captured. 

“Let go of me!” he yelled kicking back as the man picked him up. Everyone was screaming, and it was hard to hear anything that was going on, but the sound of a door opening and slamming shut silenced the room. 

They had gotten out, Mandy, Norm, Max, they had left him. 

“Fuck! Okay, everyone, we need to put the base in lockdown, Yura see if you can find anyone else, Easton, Ava, make sure the circle is complete, we need to do this summoning now!”

They’d just, left him. 

———

Mabel watched Alcor take a deep breath, trying to get a better idea of where her Dipper was, human disguise fraying at the edges, the more he concentrated on finding her brother. Alcor had gotten as far as knowing Dipper had gone to this small park, but after that it was like he had just disappeared. 

“You find anything?” she asked after a moment, fiddling with the baseball bat he had reluctantly given her once agreeing she could come, just in case. 

Alcor opened his eyes, for a second looking like his usual gold on black, but quickly changing to a more human brown before the few people hanging around the park could notice. 

“Sorry, no,” he said, looking at Mabel apologetically, “I know he’s close, I think, I just, don’t know where exactly.” 

“Then how are we supposed to find him? What if he’s in danger? What if he’s been hurt and we’re his only hope but we can’t find him? What if-“ A large sob interrupted Mabel, and the more she worried the harder it became for her to breath. 

“Hey hey it’s gonna be okay,” Alcor said, kneeling down, “I promised you he’d be all right, and we are going to find him. I just, need a bit more time to look.” Alcor gave her a reassuring smile, or, as close to one as someone could get when their teeth had gone all pointy again. 

“You sure?” she asked, her voice small and worried. Mabel didn’t know what she’d do without her brother, especially while they were stuck in a completely different dimension. Then after meeting Ford the other day it was hard to not be scared of what the future might hold for the two of them, even without this whole mess going on right now. 

Alcor hesitated for just a moment, before saying “I promise.” 

Mabel took a deep breath, calming herself down. Alcor was right, he had to be, he was also Dipper, if anyone could find her brother it would be him. It would be fine, they just had to keep looking. “Okay, yeah, it’ll be okay”. 

“That’s the spirit! Now how about you ask the people here if they’ve seen anything and I’ll keep trying to see if I can find him,” Alcor suggested, standing up again, and Mabel already felt better about this. A little. Maybe. 

Mabel looked towards where a small family were hanging out and was just about to walk over to them when a group of people came hurtling across the park towards them, getting everyones attention. 

“You lot alright?” one of the guys already at the park asked the new comers, Mabel and Alcor wondering over to see what was going on. 

The older looking woman took a moment to catch her breath, before panting out “Cult, kidnapped, other people, still held, captive.” 

The fears Mabel had just started to overcome came crashing back. Please don’t let Dipper be one of them, please don't let Dipper be one of them!

“Shit, okay I’ll go call the police,” the guy said, quickly getting a phone out and dialling the number. 

The rest of the family helped the strangers sit down, making sure they were all okay, Alcor stepping forward once they all knew they were. 

“You said there were still others,” he started, the woman nodding to confirm, “was there another kid with you, scruffy brown hair, wearing a vest, kinda looks like a boy version of her,” Alcor finished, pointing at Mabel.

“Yeah, Dipper.” 

Mabel felt her legs begin to shake, her fears strengthening, freezing and flowing through her like ice. Why did this have to happen to them? Why did he have to be taken again? Why couldn’t they just go home already?! 

“That’s him! Is he okay? Was he with you? Where is he now?” Alcor asked. 

“He was with us when we escaped but he fell behind and was captured again, I wanted to go back for him but we couldn’t risk it. He’s still there,” the teen said curling in on himself in shame. 

“So he was with you, you tried to help, he was caught again, and now you feel bad, got it, come on Mabel!” Alcor called, snapping out of Mabel’s frozen spiral. 

“Huh?” she ask, not having paid much attention to what was happening around her. 

“I’m not just going to leave you by yourself now come on!” Alcor started heading in the direction the three strangers had come from, and Mabel quickly caught up with him realising they were going to save her brother. 

They both walked down the middle of the street, until the park was out of site, until Alcor suddenly stopped, looking at the buildings surrounding the two of them. “I should have asked where the cult was,” he said, frantically looking at each building. “I know it’s this way, this is where they came from but,” he wrung his hands out in front of himself, letting out a little growl. “WHY ARE ALL THE BUILDINGS IDENTICAL?!” 

“Maybe we could go back and ask, we didn’t go too far,” Mabel began to suggest some what quietly, holding the baseball bat closer to herself, but Alcor interrupted. 

“No time! The cultists would have known that when that lot escaped they’d get help so they would have to move quickly, if we don’t find and stop them now they might..” Alcor stopped when he looked over at Mabel, large tears threatening to fall from her wide fearful eyes. 

He quietly cursed under his breath, before kneeling down in front of her, and hesitantly pulling her into a hug. 

“Please don’t cry, it’s gonna be alright, we’ll find him, I promised didn't I?” he said, unsure of what to do or say, especially when the tears began to fall on his suit jacket. 

“I just want Dipper back. My Dipper. I just want all this to be all over. I just want to go home,” she whispered into his shoulder, returning the hug, bat dropped, forgotten at her side. 

“I know, it’ll be okay, I,” Alcor paused, leaning back bit and looking to his left. 

“Alcor? What is it?” Mabel asked watching him stand up properly, eyes not leaving the pain building he was now staring at. 

“He’s in there,” he said, slowly taking a few steps towards it, and Mabel instantly began to feel better. 

“H-how do you know?” 

“Because someone inside just tried to summon me.”


	9. Sorry I'm Late

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally updated! I’ll try to get the next chapter up within the next two week to make up for taking so long with this one :)

By the time Dipper started recognising what was happening around himself again, he had already been tied up and brought into a large room, with what had to be some kind of summoning circle in the middle. Two robbed figures ran around it, each adding final details to a more complex outer circle that enclosed the simpler inner one, and lighting candles respectively, in a rush to get things done. Dipper pulled at the rope tying his wrists together behind his back to no avail, the knot staying as tight as before. 

Why did this have to be happening? Why couldn’t I have just gotten out with the others? What happened to me back there?

He continued to try and pick at the rope holding him there, making little to no progress when two more cultists entered the room, holding onto Rachael’s arms, dragging her in behind themselves. 

“You’re all going to regret this!” she yelled at them, fighting back. “He hates human sacrifice! How could you idiots possibly not know that?!” At that her captors dumped her unceremoniously next to Dipper, Rachael’s face falling when seeing him, before getting even angrier. “He especially hates sacrifices when they’re just kids! Honestly when I realised you morons were planing on summoning my Lord I couldn’t believe it, it was such a suicidal idea! The second you call Him here and offer us up Alcor will make you all wish you were never born!” 

Wait.

When Rachael said Alcor Dipper immediately started paying more attention to what she was saying. He had been listening, off course, just not as closely as he could have been. But, there was no way she could have been referring to his demonic counterpart, could she? The dislike for sacrificing people would be comforting to have cleared up but, did she also refer to him as, her ‘Lord’? 

“Did you just say Alcor?” Dipper asked, needing to know for sure.

Rachael paused mid rant and looked over at him. “Yeah, the Dreambender, Twin star, Owner of a Thousand Other Titles No One Ever Bothers to Learn. Why you know any other demons who hate people murdering for them?”

‘Well, I guess not but-“ 

“Look, kid I wouldn’t worry about it, once these nut jobs summon Alcor he’ll easily get you back to your family, or at the very least somewhere safe.” she interrupted. “I don’t know what people outside the Circle teach each other about him but he’d never willingly hurt a child. It’s going to be alright.” 

“Circle? Wait, are you part of a cult that worships him?!” Dipper asked, really not sure how to feel about that. Because no. But also yes? Maybe? A little? Defiantly no but maybe yes. 

“The Circle’s not a cult! And I don’t worship him, I just, have a great deal of respect for him.” 

“Silence!” The fox tailed woman, who had been there when Dipper was captured, was standing in front of them, from the other side of the circle. The cultist had finished getting set up and had surrounded the circle, with Dipper and Rachael between it and them. 

The woman, their leader, raised her arms, with everyone following her lead, and began chanting. 

The candles flared up, changing into a bright blue, and casting strange shadows all over the room, which slunk into the centre of the circle, building up and up as the chanting reached it’s crescendo. At the final word the shadows crashed down around everyone, filling the room, until it cleared out, revealing an empty circle. 

Everyone stared in stunned silence, waiting for something to happen, the leader getting visibly angrier each second it looked like their summoning hadn’t worked. 

Dipper wasn’t sure if he had wanted Alcor to come, because he still didn’t know if he trusted him, even with the new information. But then on the other hand he was still captured by a cult that had apparently been planing to sacrifice him to, himself. One way or another Dipper just wanted all this to be over. 

After a minute of watching the circle in shocked silence a loud crash, followed by somewhat frantic whispers, came from just outside the closed door, grabbing everyones attention. Dipper watched as the leader motioned for a few cultists to go investigate, the two standing on either side of her moving towards the door. However just before they could reach it, it slammed open, hitting one of them in the face. 

“Hey sorry I’m late! Was a bit busy trying to find my spooky cultist robes. Ended up having to steal them from the guy guarding the door. So what’s happening, what’d I miss?” There standing in front of the open door was Alcor, true to his word wearing an overly large robe over his suit, behind him a heavy set man tied up and lying on the floor unconscious. 

Everyone stared. Alcor stared back. “Nothing?” he prompted, slouching at the confused, minimal responses from those in the room. “Ugh, fine, I’m not even entirely sure where I was going with this anyway.” And he clicked his fingers. 

———

“What are we waiting for? Let’s go save my brother!” Mabel began running towards the building Alcor had looked at, but had only managed a few steps before Alcor caught her by the back of her sweater. 

“Oh no you don’t! You are waiting here and staying out of trouble!” Alcor stated, picking Mabel up and placing her behind him. “Stay!” he said pointing sharply at her, and left before she had the opportunity to argue back. In the blink on an eye he vanished into the house, Mabel staring stunned, at where Alcor had just been. 

There is no way I am just going to stand around out here while my bro bro is in danger. 

Mabel ran up the the steps to the door and kicked it open, and then immediately regretting it. OW! That hurt a lot more then the movies made it look. 

Still determined to help Mabel limped down the hall way, looking for both her actual, and alternate brothers. “Come on, where are you guys? This place can’t be that big, can it?” she whispered to herself, pressing forward once coming across the set of stairs descending downwards. At the bottom was a short corridor, with a closed door at the end, Alcor hovering just outside it. He had a weird robe in his hands, which must have belonged to the man tied up below him. When Mabel reached the bottom he looked up at her and jumped back in surprise, bumping into the wall knocking over the mirror hanging there with a crash. 

“Mabel! What are you doing here?! I told you to stay!” he whisper shouted at her. 

“But I want to help! I-“

“No!” he interrupted. “You are going back up those stairs and out of potential danger right this instance!” Yet again without giving her the chance to fight back he flicked his wrist and with a slight lurch not dissimilar the time Alcor teleported the twins to his house, she was outside the house again. She stomped her foot and immediately ran back into the house. She wasn’t going to be dissuaded so easily, she was going to help whether Alcor wanted her to or not. Before she could reach the stairs however someone ran into her, knocking her down to the ground. Mabel looked up to see who it was and was immediately overjoyed, jumping right up and giving Dipper the biggest, sisterly bear hug she could muster. 

“DIPPER!! You’re alright!” she yelled. 

“Mabel! Air! Need!” Dipper choked out, smiling nonetheless. 

Mabel let go laughing, wiping her eyes. “Sorry! I’m just so glad you’re okay!”  
“Me too!” This time it was Dippers turn to pull her into a rib cracking hug. “What are you doing here?” he asked, letting go. 

“I came to help rescue you!” she held up the baseball bat Alcor had given her for self defence, to show how serious she was about it all. “Did Alcor help you escape already?”

Dipper didn’t answer, instead stubbornly looking away to the side. At his silence the woman behind him made herself known and stepped closer to the two of them. “Yes he did. Did you summon him to help find Dipper?” she asked. 

Mabel thought for a second. “Er. Yes. And you are?” 

“Rachael, a, fellow escapee, and I really think we should take this conversation outside.” Rachael began walking towards the door, urging them to follow. Mabel did still want to help Alcor, but her Dipper was safe now, and the loud rumbling starting to come from downstairs suggested he probably had things at least somewhat under control. 

Mabel looked at Dipper, who had started looking nervously behind themselves when the rumbling had, took his hand, bringing his attention back to her. “Come on Bro bro, let’s worry about that, after we’ve left this creepy place.”


	10. What Now?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! An update! We are now halfway (Why did I plan this to be so long? Why? Someone go back in time and stop me from making that mistake) and this chapter is significantly shorter (sorry ‘bout dat) then most of the others and is basically just wrapping up the first half so we can finally get to the stuff I’ve been waiting to write for forever! Anyway if you’re still reading this I love you and I hope you enjoy this tiny ass interlude chapter thing :)

The police had just arrived as the three of them left the building, Rachael waving her arms to get their attention. The three of them had swiftly been taken aside as a group of armed officers entered the building. Rachael had left to go answer some questions, and the twins, after they were confirmed to be unharmed were mostly ignored in favour of finding the cultists. It was probably a good thing the police weren't paying them much attention, give their situation, though that had confused Dipper just a tad. Surely they would care just a little bit about finding two kids escaping a cult base, right? 

"You okay?" Mabel asked, prodding Dipper in his side as they watched more officers arrive on the scene. They must have made it to the basement. 

"Hu? Oh, yeah, I guess." Dipper wasn't really paying much attention, more focused on wondering what exactly it was they found down there. 

Mabel looked at Dipper suspiciously, leaning in to his personal space. "Oh really? Cause I feel like I need to get out my scepticals," she joked, ringing her eyes with her fingers. She quickly dropped her hands though as Dipper continued to look worried. "Come on Dipper, you sure you're okay?" 

"Not really," he admitted after a moment of thought. "You? Don't think you can trick me either." At that Mabel deflated a little.

"Been better. Definitely tired of everything going wrong." 

"Yeah, this has all been, not great." As he said that an ambulance arrived, paramedics rushing inside the innocent looking building with stretchers, and to bottom of Dipper's stomach dropped. "What do you think he did to them?" he near whispered, forcing himself to look away at at Mabel. 

Mabel stiffened, paused in thought, before relaxing a little. "I think, he did what he, what he had to, to keep us safe from them." 

“But, how?” 

“They’re all still alive if that’s what you’re worried about,” said a familiar voice behind them, causing the twins to jump and turn around to look at him. There Alcor, Dipper, stood, looking human, worn out, and most of all scared. “Look, I, I’m sorry, I should have just told you. None of this would of happened if I had just been honest from the beginning. I guess I just. You were already having to stay with a demon in another dimension far from home and I guess I just didn’t want to add any extra stress or, confusion. I’m sorry.” 

“It’s alright Alcor, we understand. Right Dipper?” Mabel said, bumping her brothers shoulder.

Dipper thought about it for a second, looking at how downcast and regretful he appeared. That was him. An alternate version of himself, who was a powerful demon that was trying to help them home, and had done nothing but keep them, relatively, safe. He was weird, and no doubt dangerous, but he had also given the twins somewhere to stay while in this dimension, offered to help find a way to get them back home, saved Dipper from those cultists. 

“Yeah, it’s okay,” Dipper said, not looking at anyone. 

“Really?” Demon Dipper exclaimed, the surprise clear in his voice. “I kind of expected you to be more, distrusting.” 

“Oh I still hate everything about this, but.” Dipper took a deep breath, looking up at his other self. “You did save me, and I don’t want to not trust myself and, I can, kind of, see myself doing what you did. With the lying about who you are.” 

“….Thanks Dipper.” 

“Awww! You finally trust him!” Mabel coed, causing Dipper to glare at her, and the older one to laugh. 

“Yeah well he’s probably our only option to get back home, so we don’t exactly have a choice here. And I still want answers on what that room was about and where everyone else is!” 

“That’s fair,” Demon Dipper said, smiling. “Want to go back to my place before these officers remember you two are here and decide to do their job?”

———

“So, you were the only one who, changed? When it all went down?” Dipper checked, and Alcor, who’d insisted they just keep calling him that, to save any confusion, confirming it with a nod. 

“And you’ve been like this for over a thousand years?” 

“One thousand, two hundred and nine two to be exact.” 

“And that room belonged to a kid you took care off because he didn’t have a home.” 

“Among other reasons yes.” 

“You saved the world.” 

“Apparently.” 

“You also died.” 

“And became and immortal demon, can’t forget that.” 

The two sat in silence, Mabel having gone off to find something to eat for lunch and give them space to talk. That had been, a lot to take in. 

“You don’t think that could happen to us, do you?” Dipper asked, suddenly worried about his own future. If it was possible to be turned into a demon what else was possible?

“I highly doubt it. The whole becoming an all powerful demon thing was the result of a lot of very specific events happening in a lot of very specific ways. You’ll be fine,” Alcor assured him, and Dipper relaxed a tad, nodding slightly. 

“Okay.” 

They both continued to sight in some what awkward silence, when Mabel came back with some sandwiches she’d made. “You all caught up bro bro?” she asked, taking a bite from one of her sandwiches. 

“I guess so,” he shrugged looking at Alcor.

“Yeah, you should both be on the same page now,” Alcor confirmed, taking a sandwich as Mabel offered it to him. 

“So what now?” Dipper asked, takings own sandwich. “Do we just, wait until you find a way to get us back home?” 

At that Alcor suddenly jumped up, eyes glowing brighter and a smile forming on his face. “I can’t believe I forgot! I already found that!”


	11. Into The Woods

“You WHAT!?” the twins yelled at that same time, jumping up themselves, lunch forgotten. 

“I figured out how to get you two back to your dimension!” Alcor said, almost buzzing with excitement, Mabel joining him. 

“Why didn’t you say something sooner?!” Dipper exclaimed, not sure he could believe they just might be home soon. 

“I was going to but then that whole you two figuring out who I was and you running away thing happened!” 

“Who cares about all that!” Mabel interrupted, bouncing up and down, a large smile consuming her face. “What’s the plan?!” 

“Right!” Alcor sat down again, promoting the twins to follow. “So you guys where exploring the forest when you were pulled into that portal correct?” 

“Yeah,” Dipper confirmed, not sure where this was going. 

“Well I remembered that a while ago when I was wondering around the forest around Gravity Falls I noticed that the area was more overly saturated in magic then everywhere else around it. I wasn’t able to investigate for too long cause I was pulled away to a summons and forgot about it but, I realised now that that was probably due to some kind of inter-dimensional rift similar to what you guys fell through. With any luck it’s probably the same one!” 

“Okay, but, how do you know if it’s still there, you said it was a while ago.”

“It’s our only lead you guys have right now, and possibly your only option.” 

Dipper and Mabel thought it over for a second, when Mabel seemed to remember something. “Wait a second? if these two portals are connected, why didn't we show up in Gravity Falls? Why did we show up in the ally?” 

That, was a good point, Dipper realised looking to Alcor for an explanation. 

“Well, the portals wouldn’t actually be connected like in movies, they’d be two different versions of the same thing.” Dipper and Mabel stared at him blankly. “Right, let me try and explain. The portal in you’re dimension brought you to this version of reality, not to the portal here because they’re not the same thing, so the portal here will hopefully take you to your version of reality.” 

“But by that logic it’d just drop us anywhere in our dimension, it doesn’t help us if we show up on the other side of the planet!” Dipper countered. 

“Yeah, and how do you know it won’t just take us to a completely new dimension?” Mabel added, smile quickly vanishing. 

At that Alcor hurriedly tried to calm them down. “No no no! None of that should be a problem! When we find the portal it should be easy for me to change it so it takes you two where you need.” 

“But I thought you couldn’t make a portal for us?” 

“I won’t have to, the portal would already be there. I’d just be, influencing it slightly.” he clear up, the twins both relaxing as he did. 

A second passed in silence. Then Mabel cheered, throwing her arms up and surprising the two Dippers. “We’re gonna go home!” 

A smile graced Dippers face, the realisation finally, properly setting in. “We’re going home.” He almost couldn’t believe it, after what felt like so long it was finally happening. “Well, what are we waiting for! Lets go!” 

“Err, well, I mean, I still need to find exactly where it is,” Alcor said, “I know vaguely where it should be, but, how about you two get organised while I see if I can find it,” he proposed, and the twins nodded, before rushing of to do as he suggested, Mabel towards the kitchen, and Dipper upstairs to grab the few things they had had with them. 

They were so close, this was actually happening, Dipper couldn’t be more excited and ready he felt like, he felt-

He felt like his head was about to explode. The moment he reached the door to the room they’d been given the headache from when he’d first tried to escape the cultists returned, and worse then before. He couldn’t move couldn’t think. All there was was the feeling of being ripped up from the head down and then- 

It was gone, just as quickly as before. When Dipper opened his eyes he was curled up on the ground, and when had he fallen over? 

Alcor’s head popped up from the bottom of the stairs. “You okay?” 

“Yeah, just tripped,” he lied, getting up. It was probably nothing to worry about anyway.

“You sure?”

“Yeah, it’s fine.” 

“…Okay.” He didn’t sound convinced, but he moved back out of site regardless. 

That, came out of no where. 

———

“Alright, you guys ready?” Alcor asked looking at the twins. 

“Yep!” Mabel cheered, bouncing up and down, unable to contain her excitement. 

“Obviously, we didn’t exactly have much to do.” 

“Speak for yourself! I made snacks!” At that she help up the small backpack she had found and clearly filled with food. “I also got some water bottles, it’s important to stay hydrated!” 

“Where did you find all that? I’m sure I didn't have that much food in the house.” 

“The kitchen.” 

“Yeah but, where?”

“The cupboard.” 

“But-“ 

“Is this really important right now!?” Dipper interrupted, impatience practically radiating off him.

“Right, sorry,” Alcor apologised, and held out his hands for the twins to hold on to. “Let’s go.”

At that he tessered the two of them to just outside what was assumably the Gravity Falls forest, not that they visibly recognised it, being in an alternate time and reality changing its appearance, but could feel the magic coming from it. 

Dipper began looking around them. “I don’t see the portal.” 

“That’s cause we’re not at it,” Alcor admitted. 

“What?! Why?” ”Why not?!” the twins asked at the same time. 

“This is as close as I could bring us.” 

Just before Dipper could demand to know what that meant he heard the sound of someone behind them and turned around the others doing the same. 

“Oh hey it’s you!” Alcor said excitedly, face lighting up pointing at the buff lady staring at them, clearly dumbfounded by what she saw. 

“You again!” she growled back, hand pulling out a gun and pointing it at him. “What are you planing this time, Dreambender, and what are you doing with those children?!” 

“This time? What did I do last time?!” 

“Kids get away from that demon, he can’t be trusted,” she said not taking her eyes off of Alcor. 

“Gladly,” Dipper replied taking a step forward. 

Mabel put her hands on her hips and gave him a pointed look. “Dipper!” 

“Joking.”

“Right, well, listen, Wren, I promise I’m not up to anything evil. I’m just helping these kids get home, no unholy demon plot,” Alcor said, about to step closer when the woman, Wren, who cocked the gun and he thought otherwise, hands held up.

“Oh really? Well if you’re just helping them get home then what are you doing leading them into probably the most dangerous forest in the world?!” 

“It’s not that bad,” he muttered, looking away from her. 

Before Wren could think to attack Mabel jumped forward arm in the air to get attention. “Hello, Mabel here! Do you two know each other? What is going on right now? I wanna know!”

“Yeah! I want to get going already!” Dipper added, more then mildly annoyed at this point by this set back.

Wren’s eyes darted down to look at the twins for just a second before fixating of Alcor, gun remaining in place. “Stay out of this kids, and for the love of stars get away from him!” 

“But he really is helping us.”

“So, what? You’re telling me you two live in the deadliest forest on the planet?” 

“No but there’s a portal to our home in there!” Mabel said. 

“A portal?” 

“Yeah! You see we’re from another dimension so it’s kinda our only way home! Probably.” 

Wren finally properly looked away from Alcor, gun lowered slightly, and stared at Mabel, confusion and disbelief written plainly on her face. “Sorry what did you just say?” 

“We’re from another dimension!” 

“Yup,” Dipper added.

“Can confirm, they’re from a different Earth,” Alcor interjected. 

Wren glared at him again. “You’re contribution is irrelevant,” she snapped, and turned her attention back to Dipper and Mabel. “So, you two, are legitimately from a different dimension?”

“Yes and we’ve been stuck here for three days! I’ve been kidnapped twice! I’m really tired and I just want to get home! So if we could maybe not do this that would be great!” Dipper ranted, nearly shouting. 

At that, Wren slowly lowered the gun completely, putting it way. “Fine, you can go.” 

Dipper, already starting to move into the forest looked behind at Wren. “Wasn’t actually asking permission but great now lets go!” 

“But I’m coming with, I still don’t trust you Alcor.” 

Alcor began to pout, but Dipper interrupted before he could complain. 

“Okay, what ever! Let’s just go already!”


End file.
